This present invention relates to child seat trays, and particularly to adjustable child seat trays. More particularly, the present invention relates to a child seat tray that is movable either toward or away from the seat back of a child seat after it is attached to the side arms of a child seat.
Conventional high chairs are designed to accommodate children of different sizes as well as growing children. Typically, each high chair has a tray that can be mounted on side arms of the high chair to provide a table surface for a child seated in the high chair. Such a conventional tray can usually be moved either toward or away from the seat back of the high chair to allow the high chair to accommodate children of different sizes. Typically, a caregiver will adjust the tray so that it lies in a retracted position close to the seat back in the case of a small child or in an extended position farther away from the seat back in the case of a larger child. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,603,902 to Maloney and 4,936,603 to Turner, et al. for descriptions of high chair trays.
Since a child grows slowly, it is not necessary to change the position of the tray relative to the seat back very often to accommodate any one child in a high chair. However, due to the configuration of many conventional trays, the caregiver must always make an effort to move the tray relative to the seat back to its proper position on the high chair each time the tray is reattached to the high chair. It can be difficult and bothersome for a caregiver to adjust the position of the tray on the high chair to accommodate a child many times each day. Caregivers will know that it is often necessary to remove a tray from a high chair either to clean the tray or to lift a child out of the high chair seat.
The act of mounting a conventional tray to a high chair can itself be a frustrating or burdensome event if it is necessary for a caregiver to manually operate a pair of spaced-apart high chair-gripping assemblies mounted on the tray and the caregiver has only one hand available for the task. Caregivers, many times, must mount a tray on a high chair while holding or watching a fussy infant or toddler. Although many well-known trays having conventional high chair-gripping clamp assemblies are in widespread use, caregivers will welcome an improved tray having a high chair mounting device that is less cumbersome to operate than traditional clamp assemblies.
What is needed is a child seat tray assembly that can be mounted easily on a high chair and has a "memory" so that it will automatically occupy a pre-determined position relative to the seat back each time the tray is mounted on the high chair. Ideally, the memorized or pre-determined position of the tray can be selected by a caregiver using only one hand while the tray is mounted on the high chair side arms. Then, each time the caregiver reattaches the tray to the high chair the tray will occupy its pre-determined position.
According to the present invention, a child seat tray assembly is provided for use on a child seat. The tray assembly includes a tray bottom and a tray top mounted for sliding movement on the tray bottom. The tray assembly further includes means for locking the tray top on the tray bottom so that it occupies a memorized pre-determined position relative to the seat back. So, every time a caregiver attaches the tray bottom on the arms of the chair, the tray top is situated in the memorized position automatically without further adjustment.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, the tray top is locked in the memorized position on the tray bottom by a locking mechanism. This locking mechanism includes a flat generally rectangular tray lock unit positioned between the tray top and tray bottom and a L-shaped tray top retention latch mounted on the lock unit for movement into and out of locking engagement with the tray top. Additionally, the lock unit is normally spring biased toward the seat back to move the latch carried on the lock unit into engagement with several latch posts mounted on the tray bottom.
The latch pivots about a pivot post appended to the underside of the tray top. The latch includes a head portion at one end for engagement in one of several slots formed in the tray bottom to establish a fixed position of the tray top relative to the tray bottom. The latch also includes a tail portion at an opposite end for connection to the lock unit.
The lock unit itself includes a slidable base and a pivot bar which is appended to the slidable base and arranged to extend toward the tray top and is coupled to the tail portion of the pivotable latch. The tail portion of the latch is formed to include a slot receiving the pivot bar and allowing sliding movement of the pivot bar therein to create a bell crank mechanism for pivoting the latch in response to sliding movement of the spring-biased lock unit. In use, as the lock unit is normally urged toward the seat back, the pivot bar moves through the slot to pivot the latch into engagement with latching posts formed on the tray bottom. These latching posts engage the pivoting L-shaped latch to fasten the tray top in a fixed "memorized" position relative to the underlying tray bottom.
Moreover, a handle is appended to the flat lock unit and arranged to extend out of an aperture defined by the tray top and an adjacent tray bottom so that a caregiver can grip the handle using a single hand. In use, the caregiver can move the handle to control pivoting of the latch about the pivot post appended to the underside of the tray top and relative to the latching posts formed on the tray bottom. As the caregiver pulls the handle to move the slidable lock unit against the biasing spring, the pivot bar appended to the lock unit moves away from the seat back and through the slot formed in the tail portion of the latch to pivot the latch about its pivot post away from the latch posts formed on the tray bottom to a latch post-disengaging position. This disengaging position releases the tray top from its fixed position relative to the tray bottom and allows the caregiver to slide the tray top relative to the tray bottom that is mounted in a fixed position on side arms of a high chair. Since the lock unit is normally spring biased toward the seat back, the lock unit snaps toward the seat back and the latch automatically pivots about its pivot post on the tray top into engagement with the latch posts formed on the tray bottom once the caregiver releases handle. Thus, the tray top is locked automatically in a new memorized position relative to the tray bottom.
Preferably, the tray assembly includes a mounting mechanism positioned between the tray top and the tray bottom and configured to permit a caregiver to attach the tray bottom easily to the child seat in a fixed locked position. The mounting mechanism includes a locking bar which extends across the width of the tray bottom and over the high chair arms and spring-biased L-shaped mounting latches affixed to the locking bar. The tray bottom itself includes a tray-receiving passageway formed for extension of the latches therethrough and guiding portions surrounding the passageways and having an inner end facing the chair seat. The latches extend through the guiding portions and are normally spring biased into engagement with the inner ends of the guiding portion.
Each guiding portion is sized for extension into tray mounting portions formed within the arms and having a mounting lip positioned therein. The spring-biased mounting latch sandwiches the mounting lip between itself and the inner end of the respective guiding portion to lock the tray bottom on the arms of the child seat. Additionally, a lever is mounted on each of the opposite ends of the bar so that a caregiver can easily lift the lever to pivot the bar on the tray bottom and yieldably urge the mounting latch away from the mounting lip so that the tray bottom may be removed from a mounted position on the arms of the child seat.
The initial development of the tray assembly was undertaken to create a child seat tray which has a set memorized position relative to the seat back and which can be periodically adjusted on the chair seat to accommodate a growing child. Due to the fixed position of the tray bottom on the seat, it was desirable to create suitable means for locking the tray top in the memorized position and for adjusting the tray top on the tray bottom in front of a child seated in the child seat. The function of the locking mechanism is to allow the caregiver, with one hand, to lock the tray top on the tray bottom so that it occupies the memorized position every time the tray assembly is mounted on the high chair. This is accomplished by the latch which is yieldably spring biased into engagement with latch posts formed on the tray bottom.
The function of the mounting mechanism in combination with the guiding portions is to allow the caregiver to snap the tray assembly onto the chair in one motion and to remove the assembly from the chair by easily lifting one latch-release lever. This is accomplished by spring-biased mounting latches and latch-release levers mounted on the locking bar. The mounting latches are positioned within guiding portions and are spring biased for engagement with the guiding portion itself. The guiding portions are pressed into the tray-receiving passageway formed in the arms until the mounting latches engage the mounting lip and then snap into place. Raising either latch-release lever pivots the latch away from the mounting lip so that the guiding portion may be easily lifted out of the tray-receiving passageway.
It is quite simple to adjust the pre-determined memorized position of the tray top relative to the seat back. The caregiver must only pull a handle affixed to the lock unit away from the seat back until the latch disengages the latch posts formed on the tray bottom. The caregiver may then slide the tray top relative to the tray bottom between an expanded position and a retracted position. To reset the memorized fixed position, the caregiver must simply release the handle. The latch mounted on a pivot post appended to the tray top automatically snaps into engagement with the latch posts formed on the tray bottom to fix the tray top in a fixed position relative to the tray bottom.
It is also simple to mount a child seat tray assembly in accordance with the present invention on a seat. The caregiver must only extend the guiding portions through the tray-receiving passageway in the arms until the mounting latches snap past the mounting lip. The snapping sound serves as an indication to the caregiver that the tray bottom is securely locked within the tray mount. To remove the tray assembly from the chair, the caregiver must only lift the latch-release lever and lift the guiding portions from the tray mount.
Additional objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of preferred embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.